Using Beck Depression Inventory on Telecommunication Network

Abstract

The Beck's Depression Inventory standardized in Republic of Korea was conducted through the telecommunication network, which is showing the foremost growth in the information field, in an attempt to test the utilization of the telecommunication network in the field of psychiatry. With the results of 1185 responders who responded through the Inchon telecommunication network, reliability and the differences in Beck's Depression Inventory scores in accordance to demographic variables were compared. The results are as follows: 1) 62.2% of the total contacts responded in one week of time showing a high response rate. 2) The result showed a high reliability with the Cronbach alpha of 0.8859, Split half reliability coefficient 0.8352, and after correction by Spearman-Brown method correction, 0.9104. 3) The average Beck's Depression Inventory score of subjects was 13.91±8.94, which is in accord with the results of prior studies and the Korean standardization studies, in which the result were 13.01 ±7.771 and 12.25±7.97. 4) All of the correlations between the total questionnaire and the individual questionnaire showed positive correlations(p<0.001). The questionnaires showing high and low correlations were similar to the results of prior standardization study. 5) Females showed significantly higher depression score(15.56±8.35) than males(13.56±9.01((p<0.01), and younger age showed higher depression scores(teens, 14.83±8.54, 20's 14.40±9.13, 30's 13.81±8.62, and the 40's 10.23±8.41) with the highest score in teens and the lowest score in the 40's. According to the multiple range comparison test, significant differences were shown between teens and the 40's, and the 20's and the 40's(p<0.05). The author concludes that it is reliable to conduct Beck's Depression Score through the telecommunication network, that this study and shows the possibility of using the telecommunication network in the field of psychiatry.